Memorable blizzards in the United States

By Jeremy Binckes, Digital First Media

Saturday, February 9, 2013

The winter storm moving up the East Coast of the United States is likely to inconvenience a large chunk of New England. Blizzard warnings -- meaning high winds and low visibility -- will be mixed with near-record snowfalls in what may be one of the nation’s worst winter storms on record.

The Blizzard of 1888By any measure, the Blizzard of 1888 was one of the worst in American history. It dumped an estimated 20 inches of snow over three days in March.

The blizzard paralyzed New York City for two weeks as all transportation ground to a halt. People were stranded in elevated rail cars for two days.

The aftermath of the Blizzard of 1888

The East River had frozen solid, allowing people to walk from Brooklyn to Manhattan without using the Brooklyn Bridge, newspapers at the time reported:

“The East River is almost entirely blocked with ice. A huge floe formed a natural bridge early in the forenoon and thousands of people crossed shore to shore. Not a train has come to New York over any road since last night.” Washington Post, Mar. 14, 1888

“This sort of travel kept up for an hour or so, several hundred people crossing from Brooklyn, and a few people crossing from New-York until the Brooklyn police authorities, fearful of a catastrophe and loss of life, put an end to any further attempts to cross.” New York Times, Mar. 14, 1888

The storm’s effects were long-lasting. The lack of electricity and communications in the wake of the blizzard led the city to place all utilities and wires underground. It also sparked the development of a subway system, one that could not be paralyzed by massive snow.

The Blizzard of 1949Across the Great Plains, the snows that blanketed the region in early 1949 are remembered for their sheer economic destruction.

The snow storms came one after another from New Year’s Day until the middle of February, freezing crops and killing livestock. Deadwood Magazine remembers the storms: Although actual total snowfall amounts weren’t that excessive, ranging from a foot to 30 inches, howling winds reduced visibility to less than five feet and piled drifts as high as 30 feet. Winds averaging 56 mph gusted to 72 mph or higher. An Ellsworth AFB wind indicator registered gusts above 90 mph...

The next day the temperature hit 55 degrees in Rapid City, but the respite was short lived. A newspaper headline warned, “Second blizzard heads for the Hills.” That second storm blasted into the area right on schedule. Then another storm hit. And still another. Severe winter weather settled in for more than seven weeks, developing into an emergency situation that existed until February 22...

All modes of transportation stalled, as cars were almost fully covered in snow.

North Forty News tells of a Wyoming family killed by the cold after their car stalled in the snow.

Many dead sheep and cattle could be seen in the fields after the storm. But the most tragic episode was the death of a couple and their two children, who had lived in Wellington but had moved to Rockport. Phillip Roman and his wife, Ione, became stranded in their stalled car. They decided to leave the car and started to walk toward their home with their two children, Tony, 10, and Peggy, 8. They were found frozen to death, the mother and little girl together, and the father and son together, all four within 100 feet of each other.

The 1993 “Storm of the Century”

In March 1993, nearly the entire eastern third of the United States was covered by a monster storm that produced feet of snow. Winds reached hurricane speeds, with gusts of up to 110 miles per hour. Many areas of the South that rarely see snow received piles of it.

It was the biggest winter storm in the 20th century, according to the Weather Channel.

Denver Blizzard of 2003The peak time of damaging storms along the Rockies comes during the early spring. In 2003, between March 17-19, more than 31 inches of snow fell on Denver, bringing the city to a standstill.

Blizzard of 2010Snowmageddon was the term coined for a February 2010 storm that engulfed the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. More than two feet of snow fell over a short period of time, clogging the roadways in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.